How Kahina Giving Beauty Unexpectedly Found Success In China

While indie beauty has been tough in the United States, Kahina Giving Beauty has ventured abroad, specifically to China, for growth.

The 16-year-old clean skincare brand centered on fair-trade argan oil extracted by Berber women in Morocco using centuries-old techniques expects the country to contribute $6.5 million in sales this year to its business, according to founder Katharine L’Heureux, who reports China wasn’t always in its plans. Teresa Cheung, a former actress and now Chinese beauty influencer, has been integral to Kahina Giving Beauty’s resonance in China. She discovered the brand at The Detox Market, struck a partnership with it in 2021 and has sold its products via Chinese livestream shopping app Xiaohongshu.

L’Heureux recounts, “She loved the brand, our story, connection to natural and luxury skincare, and how we give back, so she decided that we were one of her top brands, and that’s kind of how it all started.” She adds, “It was luck on our part, but partnering with one of the biggest Chinese influencers is where the real sell-through comes into play. In China, there’s a big trend towards certified organic beauty products as well as those made in the U.S.”

Cheung’s love affair with Kahina Giving Beauty couldn’t have come at a better time for the brand. In the U.S., it faced retail difficulties and aimed to diversify distribution. “Retail has changed a lot. We always held a strong presence in retail up until COVID, when it shifted,” says L’Heureux. “So, we were looking for more international distributors, but weren’t being proactive and only responding to interest that came to us.”

Kahina Giving Beauty originally broke into China via Hong Kong in 2011 with an arrival at luxury department store Joyce and established a small footprint of independent stores in the country. But once the potential for greater Chinese sales became obvious to Kahina Giving Beauty, L’Heureux along with her daughter Grace and husband Jim, who she runs the brand with, did a deep dive into distributor options in China to assist it in realizing that potential. Beginning in 2023, Beauty States International became Kahina Giving Beauty’s Chinese distributor.

“We had to find someone in Shanghai to keep their eyes and ears on the brand, which is what any U.S.-based brand entering that market should do. There’s little transparency there, and we don’t understand how everything works,” says L’Heureux. “Unless you partner with a big influencer like a brand spokesperson to promote your brand, I wouldn’t know how else to approach breaking into the Chinese market. Trying to do it all yourself is a slog and probably impossible.”

Kahina Giving Beauty’s sales from China have been exceeding expectations. In 2021, the first year the brand worked with Cheung and sold on Xiaohongshu or RED, it reached $500,000 in sales from Chinese shoppers. The brand reached $4 million in sales since adding the Tmall and Taobao platforms to its Chinese digital distribution roster in May. Now, L’Heureux says Kahina Giving Beauty’s customer is primarily Chinese.

“The volume opportunity is incredible, but it’s also tricky to navigate the market.”

The brand has discovered some American messaging and marketing tactics aren’t effective for Chinese customers. The product Moisture Mask has been renamed Overnight Miracle Mask because Chinese customers gravitate to the latter over the former. And L’Heureux says, “We have been asked to reformulate our Toning Mist to be more of a traditional toner so that the Chinese customer finds it more luxurious.”

Kahina Giving Beauty’s bestseller in China is the $62 Antioxidant Mask, a sleeper in the U.S. market. Leveraging Cheung’s sway, Kahina sold $1 million worth of the mask in one day. “It was a complete surprise,” says L’Heureux. “We are now going into our third production run of the mask because we’ve sold about 150,000 units in China. Before, we would sell about 2,000 units of that mask annually in America.”

L’Heureux admits that it’s been a challenge to keep up with demand from Kahina Giving Beauty’s Chinese customers. “Luckily, we haven’t had to invest much financially, but we provide our Chinese counterparts with bulk products to fill samples and offer gifts with purchases,” she says. “All manufacturing remains within the United States. We take a lower margin on the product, but our distributor absorbs all marketing costs.”

To other skincare brands eyeing China, L’Heureux recommends, “Be well prepared because the volume opportunity is incredible, but it’s also tricky to navigate the market because sales are completely centered around these live selling events, so there’s a different type of production and inventory management compared to what we are used to. It’s often in flux and tricky, and we are still trying to figure it all out.”

Back in the U.S., Kahina Giving Beauty’s sales have been rising of late. L’Heureux discloses they’ve been increasing 30% monthly. She credits the sales gains to brand exposure from Cheung trickling down to the U.S. customers. L’Heureux says, “Even our U.S. retailers are noticing an uptick in sales, which directly correlates to selling and seasonal events in China.” Along with The Detox Market, Kahina Giving Beauty’s U.S. retailers and e-tailers include Beauty Heroes, Beautyhabit and Integrity Botanicals.

The profits from Kahina Giving Beauty’s Chinese business have allowed it to boost its funding of U.S. efforts. L’Heureux says its focused on boosting direct-to-consumer consumer conversion and social media presence in the U.S. It’s also revamping its website and positioning. Globally, Kahina Giving Beauty is building on its success in China to expand to markets in South America, Europe and the Middle East.

In the future, Kahina Giving Beauty might create products exclusively for Chinese consumers. “Our loyal American customers love many of our products that don’t sell in China, and we try to keep that evergreen, but China has a unique customer,” says L’Heureux. “We are just letting everything evolve on its own and seeing where it goes naturally.”